Back-to-School BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joes

Okay. It’s true. My dude isn’t quite ready for school just yet. He did recently figure out that toes are delicious. PROGRESS!

Most kids though are headed back to school this time of year (or already there) and it can be a serious period of adjustment to get back into the swing of the schedule. Quick meals are a must!

So, say hello to these back-to-school BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joes! They are a little more work than tossing a package of sloppy joe mix in a pot with some chicken and calling it a day, but the tiny bit of extra effort is well worth it. You’ll still have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. Super mega promise.

If you’re really crunched for time and a great planner, you can pop all the ingredients in a slow cooker and BBQ chicken sloppy joes will be waiting for you when you need them.

Directions

1) In a medium pot, add butter over medium heat. Once melted add grated onion and salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until onions are soft.

2) Add BBQ sauce, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine. Once combined, nestle chicken in the sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 8 minutes.

3) Flip chicken in sauce, replace lid, and simmer for another 6 minutes. Test that chicken is cooked through completely. It should very easily shred apart. If it isn’t cooked through, cook for another 4 minutes and check again.

4) When chicken is cooked through, shred all the chicken using two forks. You can shred it very fine or keep it chunkier. Your call. Stir chicken back into sauce.

This meal can also be made in a slow cooker. Add all the sauce ingredients and chicken and cook on low for at least 4 hours. Shred chicken and serve!

BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joes Base

The sauce for these is like a cheater’s BBQ sauce which uses BBQ sauce as one of the ingredients. The finished sauce is a bit more complex though and has some sweetness to it although not as sweet as some sloppy joe mixes which have a lot of sugar.

It starts by cooking some grated onion in a little butter (or oil) and seasoning it with salt and pepper. Grating the onion helps it almost dissolve entirely in the sauce. It’s also really the only chopping you have to do so hang in there.

So grate.

Once the onion is cooked down a bit, add the BBQ sauce, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. Easy enough right?

All the good stuff.

Bring that all to a simmer and add the chicken. I used boneless chicken breasts but you could use a mix of breasts and thighs if you wanted.

Just kind of nestle the chicken in the sauce.

In the pool.

Cooking the BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joes

Turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let this simmer for about 8 minutes. Then flip the chicken and cook for 6 more minutes. About 15 minutes total should cook the chicken thoroughly.

This was amazing! I put it in the slow cooker on low at 8am and by the time dinner came around the chicken was deliciously soft and had soaked up all the BBQ flavours. Served this in home-made focaccia buns with coleslaw – perfect meal for the flatmates. So simple and yummy, and a nice adaptation of pulled pork. Thanks!

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Love Your Leftovers

Love Your Leftovers includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options as well as a wide range of cuisines. Each main dish includes eight to ten creative recipes for leftovers. With chapters on kitchen and pantry basics and Meal Planning 101, as well as a helpful index of vegetarian and thirty-minute meals. This isn’t just a book you might like, it’s the book your kitchen (and family) need.